Saving Jasper: Unbroken | ✓ [COMPLETE]

Chapter 10

    It was when I was eight months pregnant with the twins, that Jasper and I decided to visit his parents’ gravesites. It wasn’t something we had sat around and thought over. We didn’t plan weeks or days in advance, either. It was totally unexpected, but perfectly suitable for our current situation.

    After all, we’d already broken the news to my parents. Seven months ago. Why not tell his parents?

    It was the morning of our decision. And though it had been made five minutes earlier, I found myself thinking about it again as I got dressed.

    “You don’t work today, do you?” Jasper had asked. We had been sitting at the kitchen table in silence, slurping orange juice and munching on toasts. Jasper, generously, had been laying off the coffee for my sake. I had been advised by my ob-gyn, Bella, that drinking coffee wasn’t good for the twins.

    In fact, I had sworn off anything even remotely harmful to the twins.

“No,” I’d responded, absently reading an article in the newspaper about a woman who beat her grandson to a pulp with her cane, because she’d thought he was a burglar when entering her house. I turned the page over, leaning back in my seat as I did so.

“Wanna do something?” As he’d asked me the question, I’d looked up to meet his gaze. He looked hopeful and curious all at once. I’d smiled a little, closing my newspaper and folding it in half. I leaned forward -- as much as a an eight-months-pregnant woman could -- and reached over for his hand.

“Depends.” I had smirked knowingly, giving his hand a gentle squeeze. He chuckled quietly, shaking his head as he pulled hand out from underneath mine. Jasper had reached up, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

His laughter dispersed. “I wanted you to come with me to visit my parents’ graves. It’ll be my first time going, of course. I called Juliet but she’s busy today, and said she had been there last week.” He’d shrugged a little returning his gaze to the table top.

I’d swallowed, the warm, happy feeling fleeing my body. “Of course I’ll go with you. Just let me go get dressed, and we’ll find the address. Okay?”

“Charlie?” His voice snapped me out of my reverie. Pulling my gaze away from the window, I looked down at the shirt crumpled up in my hands. My stomach, resembling something close to an oversized basketball, would certainly unflatter this shirt, I thought.

“Yes?” I called back, yanking the shirt on over my head. I pulled my black pea-coat on next, rummaging around for a hair tie as I did so. His footsteps thumped up the stairs as I brushed my hair back into a loose ponytail.

    The door creaked open when he appeared in the doorway.

    “You ready?” He smiled at me, tucking his hands into his pockets. I nodded slowly, removing the hair pin from between my teeth. I slid it into my hair, scooping my cell phone up and putting it in my pocket. I grasped Jasper’s outstretched hand, falling into step beside him as we left the house.

    Out in the car, Jasper pulled a folded up piece of paper from his pocket. He handed it to me as he started the car up, carefully backing down the driveway. I scanned the paper -- an outline of a giant green splotch, occupied with roads, blue rivers, and red highways. Beneath the image were written instructions on how to get to the gravesite. It turned out, the gravesite was almost an hour drive from here.

    But worth it, I decided.

    As Jasper drove, I read the instructions aloud to him. He had no trouble at all navigating his way through South Carolina, though he’d grown up in North Carolina just as I did.